My lede:

American hospitals have dramatically improved their performance in providing timely heart attack care, according to a study published in the Dec. 15/22 Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Every minute counts when it comes to treating patients with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction, or STEMI.

The sooner the patient’s blocked artery is opened with balloon angioplasty after arriving at the emergency department door, the better the chances of survival.

The “door-to-balloon” time should be 90 minutes or less, according to guidelines adopted in 2004 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Assn. Yet as of mid-2005, only about half of U.S. patients with STEMI were getting angioplasties within that time frame.

By mid-2008, 831 American hospitals with primary percutaneous coronary intervention capabilities achieved a 90-minute door-to-balloon time for 75% of patients with STEMI, according to the new study.

The whole shebang.

My lede:

New Jersey physicians would have to refuse lunches from drug reps and publicly disclose any industry payments of more than $200 as conditions of licensure if new recommendations from the state attorney general’s office are adopted.

The proposals were among 22 recommendations included in a Dec. 3 report to Attorney General Anne Milgram.

The report also recommended the state medical board require that 25% of continuing medical education credits should come from “evidence-based educational programs” that refuse industry grants. Also, doctors would be barred from claiming authorship for articles they did not write and from misrepresenting their financial interests on disclosure forms.

The whole shebang.